Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Mega-Meg to the Rescue

"Best friends are one brain in two
bodies"

Halloween 2007

This is the quote that Megan Hickman
and I used to define our relationship when we were in middle school. I met
Megan at Gateway Middle School on the seventh grade softball team. We really
became friends the next year in Mr. Lunder’s eighth-grade block class. That
year we had many sleepovers, and bike adventures and long talks. We listened to
a lot of Taylor Swift and even developed a secret code that we used to write
notes to each other. We had a great time together on our eighth-grade trip to
Washington DC before we started the big adventure of high school, only we
didn't know just how adventurous it would be.

I can say without a doubt that I
would not have made it through treatment as well as I did without Megan. It is
difficult to describe just how important she was to me, but I think this story
illustrates it pretty well.

When I was in the ICU with
necrotizing fasciitis, in a rare moment of coherence I wanted four things.

– To stop the study protocol, (this
meant many fewer pills per day and fewer side effects)

– To see a therapist, (which Dr.
Leary had been encouraging me to do)

– To stop school

But the number one thing I wanted
was to see Megan.

Sunday at the Hospital

Megan was my only friend who stuck with me and supported me
all the way through treatment and beyond. I don't know what to say to express
how incredible she was. She visited me every Sunday when I was in the hospital
with Nec Fasc. She frequently visited me at my house where we spent many hours
on the couch watching movies and talking and napping. She decorated my room
when I finished radiation. She did so many things to try to get support from my
friends at school, making posters for people to sign and gave me a whole
role of receipt tape filled with notes from classmates. When she called to see
if I was up for a visit and I said I wasn't feeling up for one, she'd say, "That's
okay, do you want to talk?"

Run of Hope 2011

She made me laugh (usually at the same joke that I'd
forgotten from her last visit), she made me smile but most importantly she made
me feel that I wasn't alone.

I'll be ever grateful for the friendship and support and
love that Megan gave me. As I said before, I don't know what I would have done
without her.